Nearby Walmart to Break Ground this Spring

Please welcome Cassie as a new contributor to the Triangle blog. She lives in the Meridian at 5th & Mass and will be writing under the handle MagnifyingMass.

Six Walmart stores are scheduled to open in D.C. in the next few years, and as announced in late 2010, one will be just steps away from our hood. Late last month DC Mud reported that JBG will break ground this spring for the construction of the project on the corner of New Jersey Ave and H St NW. The mixed use complex will house an 80,000 sq. foot Wal-Mart store with 300 apartments above. (editor’s note: I believe DCMud has it wrong and it is actually one block east at 1st & H)

Ward 6 Walmart Rendering

The openings of these proposed stores are with much controversy.

@OccupyWalmartDC tweets: “Walmart intends to open six big box stores in a 68-square mile city. RT if you think that’s too many. #occupydc.”

The user then tweets again: “The city government is complicit in inviting Walmart to exploit DC. Many would shop there, unwittingly undermining their own communities.”

The latter is probably true. Many will shop there. The store will be convenient, cheap, and most likely open at odd hours when other small businesses are closed.

While the openings of Walmarts anywhere usually causes uproar among residents, activists, and small business owners, the reaction in D.C. has been especially strong. Because of this, Walmart has launched a website pointing out the advantages of the stores.

One that particularly stands out to me is the idea that residents will now have easier access to fresh produce at a reasonable price. Many families across the district are forced to eat fast-food because of monetary and convenience factors. Walmart will offer healthier options.

The store openings will also bring in jobs and an estimated $10 million in new tax revenue.

All six of the new stores will offer customers a full grocery selection, as well as a full service pharmacy and a wide variety of general merchandise. The size of each store will be between 80,000 and 120,000 square feet. Here’s where you’ll be able to find them:

Ward 4: Georgia and Missouri Ave. NW

Ward 4: Riggs Rd. NE and South Dakota Ave. NE

Ward 5: New York Ave. and Bladensburg Rd. NE

Ward 6: 801 New Jersey Ave. NW

Ward 7: Capitol Heights (East Capitol St. and 58th)

Ward 7: Good Hope Rd. and Alabama Ave. SE

What do you think about the new Walmart stores? Let us know in the comments section, or tweet me @candycass23

Comments

Assuming that 1st & H is actually the location (although the corner of N.J. & H would seem to make more sense), it appears that construction is already underway – which, as far as I’m concerned, is very exciting! In addition to the store itself, the residential development will bring much-needed life to this “dead zone,” hopefully beginning the process bridging the MVT, NOMA, and H Street Corridor neighborhoods with additional development.

The part I’m most excited about is having another nearby supermarket option to Safeway. With the influx of new residents in the coming year, that Safeway will be absolutely saturated, which is already is now. Having another place will also force Safeway to continue to improve service and prices.

I, for one, do not support the Walmart in our neighborhood. I will leave it to others to articulate their concerns on a Walmart coming into town, and anyways I am not well aware of the facts. My area of expertise and concern is the extra vehicle traffic a Walmart is bound to generate into this neighborhood. With the location being far away from a metro, most customers will be driving to this Walmart. I still have not seen any study on how a two lane ramp from 395 is going to handle the extra traffic that will show up, and not to mention the mess it will cause in the H street- NJ-Mass Ave intersection.

With the other developments in the works including City center, Convention center hotel and the office buildings, this area is bound to generate more traffic in the coming years, and I see the Walmart’s traffic as the least required. Our streets will become the new parking lots. Reduce the footprint and move it closer to a metro station like the Target in Columbia Heights or even the Costco in Crystal City. This spot can be used for better developments.

@TwoCents…Do you really think even if the Wal-Mart was closer to a metro station that people would not drive to it? When you go to Wal-Mart, you go to get a lot of things and ummm well you need a car to haul all of that home! I, for one, cannot wait until Wal-Mart opens. I live in the 425 Mass building and I am so tired of having just that nasty slow-ass Safeway store to get groceries. Honestly, I do wish Harris Teeter would move somewhere closer than the one in NoMa (but that’s beside the point). Once Wal-Mart is here, then I won’t have to drive all the way to that ghetto Target in ColHeights or into VA to Potomac Yard (which is where I normally go because the Target in ColHeights is just plain gross and scary).

Glad to hear excavation is already underway. This post probably would have been more timely a few weeks ago. I just don’t have the time to stay right on top of everything like I did the first 3 years with the blog. Hopefully with Cassie pitching in that will improve.

Always slow but at least it looked kind of nice. Now they sell the aisle spaces to the highest bidder so with all the crap in the aisles its hard to move the carts down the aisles with another cart coming at you. Worst egs: put big piles of Coke stacks in the entrance so gridlock by the receipt checkers, stacking by the Pharmacy combined with people waiting for prescripts equal more gridlock. Also why the all the tacky handwritten signs everywhere especially scotch taped to the walls near the entrance.

And finally, please bring back the Redbox. Harris Teeter Redboxes have Blu ray DVDs etc. Get rid of the blue bankrupted box.

I’d have to say a Walmart is pretty disappointing. I can’t imagine any impressed looks you’ll get by saying you live “above the Walmart.” Living above a Safeway is loud at times, I can’t imagine what a Walmart would feel like. Plus, a Walmart improves the neighborhood like a Trump Casino would. If you want big box stores, move out of the city. The local businesses are the personality and feel that make the neighborhoods enjoyable. Oh, and lets not even discuss the new tax revenue for the DC gov to squander and pocket for themselves. They throw away $10 mil without blinking an eye so this is not a particularly convincing reason.

@Anon – Feb 15 at 2:01 pm – your wish may be granted. Blockbuster Express is being purchased by Redbox from NCR, the current owner, for $100M and the deal is expected to close later in 2012. Blockbuster is now owned by Dish Network and is very liquid and alive.

I’ve had no trouble with the BBE machine at the CV Safeway and use it often. a Redbox would be more convenient for me though as I can return movies near where I work.

I am also excited about this Walmart. It is not as though the NJ Ave store is running out local businesses…there is literally nothing for blocks. I work in the vicinity of Union Station, and it will be great to be able to run out to Walmart for essentials or prescriptions instead of schleping to the CVS on Mass.

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Thais Austin has lived in the Mount Vernon Triangle since 2006 with her dog Davis. She is an active community volunteer with the Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association, Mount Vernon Triangle CID, and with the DC Association of REALTORS. She brings to the blog a background in journalism, urban planning, and real estate and development. She is a REALTOR with Long and Foster, officing out of both Logan Circle and Bethesda Gateway locations and can be contacted at thais@lnf.com.